Saturday, January 21, 2017

The Sky Ute Casino RV Park is super. It is small with only 24 sites and filled them almost every night of the twelve we were there. It is full hookup big rig friendly. Best part it is Passport America. Your Casino play can also get you free nights. We also received many perks for food etc. Very clean. Super friendly host and very helpful. Can't say enough about them. The best ever. There is a super nice indoor pool with a lazy river and hot tub. A laundry, exercise room and showers. All super clean. It is located about 15 miles from Durango.

Wide roads

Indoor pool, hot tub, lazy river see on left side of pool, also outdoor seating with tables

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Well I got a little out of order on our blog.
I’ll now try and continue in order of our travel.See our 6/19/16 blog post on pictures getting
to Ignacio Colorado.

Wow what a neat ride to getting here to
Ignacio Colorado. We are staying at the Sky Ute Casino. Our intent was to stay
here for two days, but we ended up staying twelve days. This park is about ten miles
outside of the town of Durango. Part of the reason for our extended stay was
because of the Casino RV Park, I’ll get to that in our next blog.

We had been in the Durango area before for
just a day or two, this time we wanted to explore the area a little more.We had done the Durango Silverton train
ride, but this time we drove the road to Silverton. There were so many great
pull offs with great views. When we finally got to Silverton it was lunch time.
At least the temperatures were cooler. We looked for the Mustache Saloon rated
in the top five on Trip Adviser. What a neat placefor lunch. Linda took way to many photos. The
food was very good. We got there just in time as a train pulled in shortly after we were seated. I guess a
lot of folks use Trip Adviser. After our bellies were full we walked around
town and had a lot more time to spend there then we had intended. We were
planning on going to Quray which had some major road construction along the way. You
see part of the road “fell off”. Here
much of the roads around Silverton and Quray are blasted out of the rock walls.
One section just fell off down into someplace. There was only one lane
open, but there were delays waiting for oncoming traffic to pass. At times the
delays were longer then we liked waiting while another section was being
blasted out of the side on the mountain and the road was cleared.I didn’t like the thought of being 1000’s of
feet on the edge of the road while that was happening. We knew we could get to
Quray when we were in the Montrose area and could drive over from there. So
after visiting every touristy store, we did walk some of the off the beaten
path roads. The trains aren’t in town long enough for the tourist to visit all
the out of the way places. It was nice not to be in a rush. This is so nice
when you are not in a rush to get to your next destination and you know you
have a place to sleep as long as you can get back to your RV. This is just one
of the many advantages to rving. But all you folks reading this and aren’t
Rver’s, don’t start now, as there are just too many of us now. Just kidding.
Anyone wanting advice on rving are always welcome to email us, and we would
only be too happy to share our experience.

The Durango Silverton train along the Animas River.

I believe this is a car that follows the train with water tanks in case the ash from the train should start a fire along the tracts, at least that's what we were told.

The town of Silverton, the train just about in the center of the photo

The town of Silverton, RV Park in the center of photo, the train bottom center

The Mayflower Mill, used for gold and silver mining

Beautiful view

Note the road is on the left and then curves all the way to the right side of the photo, note no guard rails

Alpine lakes/ponds

Growing between the cracks in the rocks

The dinning car on the train looks almost empty

The town with a RV Park, center right

The place we had lunch, just off the main street

Waiting for lunch

A giant moose burger

We needed desert for energy to walk around town

A great day for a ride

I believe this was the Grand Imperial hotel

Liked the sign, and the saloon

Train in town

Sign tells the story

Interesting

Bench made out of Harley parts

I bet we all know some people who belong to this society

Now that's a snow plow

Haviland day use area with a very nice campground on the way to Silverton, The San Juan National Forest

Thursday, January 5, 2017

A park with at great location to visit Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Also the city of Quray and Ridgeway. The park is a little hard to find as it is behind a shopping center. Park is well kept but a little tight in places. Most of the 40 sites are pull thru's with full hookups and a limited cable. All sites and roads were gravel. There was a small metal table with 2 chairs at our site. not sure if other sites had a picnic table. The trees were welcomed with the high temperatures we were experiencing. We were there in July. One or 2 Restaurants within walking distance.

The staff was helpful and we were lead to our site even though it was just in front of the office. Cost was around $38.00 with Good Sam. There was miniature gulf and a laundry. We would opt to stay at another RV Park in the area if ever in this area in the future.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

This canyon was so different then all the other places we visited out west. The rock cropping's were a black color.

Our first look

The Gunnison River far below

A nice cool picnic area.

The Gunnison River Far below

Twisted in time

Painted wall. 2300 ft. high cliffs more then 1 million years old.

16 % grade down to the Crystal Dam There are three dams along the river supplying water to the Uncompahgue Valley. Check out these clouds.

Where did the road get to?

One of several grouse we saw. We were told it is a blue grouse. Not sure.

The Mill creek trail which was a nice hike,W e did not do the entire hike. There is a nice picnic area at the trailhead.

This is just a sampling of the many many photo's we took of the area. Below/including the 3 dams in the Curecanti National recreation Area. There are 7 different campgrounds. Services range from primitive to full hook up. For more information search www.nps.gov/cure and For Gunnison www.nps.gov/blca This was one of our favorite places on our trip

Our Travel Map

About Me

After 9 ½ years of full time Rving some medical issues had us establish a home base. We purchased a home in a 55 or older gated community on the Space Coast of Florida on a small lake. Note I said a home base. Now if problems force us to hang up the keys we have some place to call home without being a burden to our kids. We traded our 38 foot 5th wheel with 5 slides for a 31 foot class C with 2 slides. July 2014 and on our first 5 week trip, and realize how much we miss traveling. We are now in the planning stage of a 6-9 month trip. We are planning to be more traveling Rver’s rather then spending longer periods of time in one place. We realize we are in the twilight of our traveling days and there are places we want to visit or revisit. But if we have to hang up the keys, we have a place to call home. We had made many good friends in the Rving community and hope to be able to keep in contact with then in person or via the internet.